Mad Moon Rising
by Missy Jade
Summary: [BAM] Once upon a time, fairytales clashed with mythology and belief clashed with existence, and it all happened in very unexpected ways... [Ensemble]
1. Chapter 1

_Title: Mad Moon Rising  
Pairings: Bianca/Maggie; Ryan/Kendall; Greenlee/Leo; undertones of David/Anna...  
Characters: Bianca, Maggie, Frankie, Kendall, Greenlee, Ryan, Leo, David, Robin, Anna… and a nice sprinkling of surprises…  
Notes: Inspired by the sheer genius that is Terry Pratchett, and his amazing and brilliant brain; bow to him, my friends, bow... Also inspired by some of my childhood opinions when it comes to the 'usual suspects' in some of the fairy tales my family read to me growing up..._

* * *

_Prologue_

_-_

_The Gods weren't mean-hearted, but they were entirely too human._

_Bob—none of the Mortals called him Bob, of course not, that would be disrespectful, he was only the Great and All-Powerful Bob to the Mortals, as per ancient tradition—had a weakness, a weakness for hard liquor and pretty Mortal women, and when the two met, interesting things happened._

_Where other Great and All-Powerful Gods would pull out the golden showers and the silver-plumed swan forms, he went the direct route— body shots. Bob meant Gwen, a wrench living on the edge of the Forbidden Forest—and why the forests could never be Inviting Forests, not even Bob understood—and the two later met up with said body shots._

_And, as per ancient mythological tradition, Bob's transgressions led to something unexpected, just like everything the Gods did led to something unexpected._

_Nine months after the body shots, the twins were born._

_Identical, of course… but only on the outside._

-

It was a dark and stormy night.

That should have been Bianca Montgomery's first warning.

When she was awoken at midnight—it was always midnight, following ancient tradition passed on by the Gods of Irony—by the two drenched women on the front steps on her cottage, she should have done what her instincts told her to, tell them to go away and go back to bed and let them handle their own mess, since she was sick of cleaning up after them.

But, no, she gave in, and let them into the cottage.

Greenlee looked the worse for the wear, covered in mud from head to toe and trudging across Bianca's carefully cleaned floors in a way that made the younger woman grind her teeth, fingers itching to beat the tiny woman out of her home. She was saved by that fate by Kendall, not bothered by Bianca's cringe as she whipped off her black hat, scattering wet leaves and several feathers through the air to splatter against the walls.

"The broom's supposed to stay in the air, you two."

"Greenlee was driving," Kendall snarked, and then yelped when the petite woman in question fired an angry kick at her, leaving the curly-haired vixen to hop furiously, hissing under her breath. Scowling, swiping at the mud on her face, Greenlee snapped more innocently, "What Kendall here isn't telling you is that she crashed mine—"

"You told me to hang on!"

"Not there, you nitwit!" Greenlee shrieked, sounding not unlike a feline as she threw her hands up into the air, sending mud flying, bits of it landing on Bianca's stony face. "I can just see the conversation now, really! 'Leo, honey, we crashed my broom because Kendall goosed me when I was flying!'"

"I didn't goose you, it was an accident!"

Bianca closed her eyes, and desperately started to count.

"Oh, please, you're like some kind of… lust bunny!"

"It's _dust_ bunny, shrimp!

Four… five… six…

"I know what it is, and it's a play on words, but you're too stupid to get the joke at your own expense!"

"I am not stupid!"

Eight… nine… "Ten, dammit, ten!" she shrieked, wanting nothing more than to get the two loons out of her home and back into bed, and only more infuriated when her sister and step-sister simply stood there and stared at her like she was insane, as if she was the one covered in leaves and mud and not them.

"Well, gee-golly-gosh, Binks, you get a trip from Uncle Fred"

"Must have," Greenlee agreed solemnly, and Kendall nodded, the two women now completely in sync again.

"Okay, you two, get out, I can't handle this right now—"

"No, we can't—"

"No, I can make you—"

Both women rushed at her, step-sister locking an arm around her waist and half-sister wrapping both arms around her neck, squeezing tight enough to make Bianca's eyes cross. "We need your help Binks!" she blurted, and Greenlee nodded furiously, patting the younger woman intensely on the back.

"I don't care—"

"Vanessa's lost it again," Greenlee blurted out, and Kendall rolled her eyes, reaching around her sister to swat the small woman, giving her a 'nice-way-to-break-the-news-tactless-midget' look that said tactless midget stuck her tongue out at. When Bianca just glared at them both, refusing to be thrown off her decision to get rid of them, Greenlee added more brightly, "You know, the usual… same crap, different day… she's got her evil plans for world domination and all that stuff—"

"I'm not involved—"

"We need your help, Binks," Kendall whispered urgently, grabbing her sister and flinging her down into her seat, quickly dropping herself and Greenlee on either side to keep the younger woman down where they could try to convince her by any means they might need to fall back on— bribing, threatening, pleading… the usual.

"Vanessa's lost it completely this time, okay? I mean, totally and completely batshit crazy and all that jazz—" Greenlee nodded furiously, urging Kendall on, seeing by Bianca's flat stare that she was not falling for it. "She turned Ryan into a monkey when he tried to help me, for Gods' sake!"

"I don't care, it's not my problem—"

"She went after Leo, Bianca, and she—" She paused, hesitated, picking up on the fact that she now had Bianca's complete and total concentration, brown eyes alight with a sudden worried sharpness. "What, did she hurt him?" she finally asked, and Greenlee shook her head, paused, and then shrugged helplessly, looking to Kendall to explain it to the ebony-haired young woman between them.

"We think he might have gone to a swamp to live out his days, Binks."

-

_If you like, please review... please... the Muse is starving... starving, I tell you..._


	2. Chapter 2

_One_

-

_Fate is not a fickle thing, not really._

_Fate is the result of a lost bet between Bob and his brother, Lou, when their mother had been out of the house for an evening. It had been early in their existence, before Bob had been dictated to be the Good One and Lou the Bad One and, even now, they were both just the Irritating Ones to their dear mother._

_Therefore, the Gods had no idea what to do when the Mortals began to take Fate seriously._

_Fate, however, did._

_Fate, to the Gods' great irritation, began to take itself seriously._

-

Greenlee talked, and Kendall talked, and Bianca's worried headache had grown.

There was the usual, of course— overtaxed peasants threatening to overthrow their government with their overabundance of cake, growing shadows of dark lords in the far distance with armies of dark creatures both evil and wicked with a disturbing fascination for cheap jewelry, knights protecting an ancient treasure that had something to do with religion.

Or something to do with an ornate vase, no one was quite sure what.

Vanessa, however, was something to worry about.

Vanessa didn't take herself too seriously, and so worked twice as hard to make people take her seriously.

Greenlee and Kendall talked, and Bianca worried, grew increasingly fretful as she fully understood the omens.

Said omens being, of course, Greenlee and Kendall talking, and not arguing, as they explained the Fearful Events.

The talking didn't last, of course, and as they began a bickering tirade seemingly based around the proper use of henna for hair coloring, the younger woman stood, drifting uneasily across the room as her thoughts turned ever more troubled. Dark lords and overzealous villagers aside, she had a good place here, away from torches and stakes and pitchforks.

She'd gone after Leo, and that—

"But she's not a witch," she snapped uneasily, glancing around to find the two women staring at her with owlish expressions, wide-eyed and overly innocent. "Did you two do something, because if you did, so help me—" They shook their heads furiously, and she trailed off, eyes narrowing. "What's that look for?"

"What look?"

"We don't have a look."

"Then how does she suddenly have the power to do this stuff?" she demanded, not letting them break eye contact. It was a talent she had picked up from her father, and she used it now, pinning her half-sister and step-sister with a steely dark gaze. When they sat there, looking dazed by it, she reined her power in, pulled it back enough for them to answer, getting a weak shake of two messy heads.

"Well?" she prodded and they scooted closer together, linking hands as they finally starting mumbling. She was forced to finally move closer to them, and then bend to hear—and promptly wished she hadn't, a knot beginning to tighten in her middle at some of the terms they were babbling about.

Divine spark… sacred twins… body shots… Bob…

Crap.

-

There were times when Robin worried about her mother's mental sanity.

This was one of them.

Heavily aware of the fact that she looked like nothing so much as an overgrown two year old with the way she kept stomping around, she adjusted her hold on the basket of sweets and increased her speed, wishing she could drop her hood to breathe more easily. But no, no way, the hood had to be up for it to work.

Stupid Mattie, dying on Noah without warning… stupid Noah, running his son off… stupid Patrick, running off to give in to his animalistic tendencies… stupid Dad, dying when she needed him to keep a sane hold on Mom… stupid Patrick, with his obsession for women in red… stupid hood, making it hard to see…

Robin was in a foul mood, needless to say.

"You look a bit cranky there, 'hood."

Crap—

Tossing back her hood, blinking a few times at the sudden flood of bright sunlight to fall over her face, the young woman turned her brown-eyed gaze to the amused-looking Healer some feet behind her. He looked the same as he had the last time she had seen him—a bit more worried, though, which made her sigh.

"Dark lord and an army of dark creatures?" she asked dryly, but he just sighed, sliding down from the horse and striding over, cocking one eyebrow at the get-up she was wearing, from red hooded cloak to basket of goodies. "I take it your precious little Drake went running off again?"

"He's not my sweetheart," she snapped childishly, but she was blushing, and knew it.

"Not smart to take up with a shape-shifter, blue-bird."

"It's Robin," she muttered but she couldn't help but smile at him slightly, feeling oddly grateful to see him. So many people were always intimidated by her last name, always in awe of her parents' status as living and no-longer-living legends, but David Hayward never was. "What do you want?" she asked curiously, popping open the basket and holding it open, allowing him to glance through and then select a honey cake.

"I'm just looking for that delightful mother of yours," he drawled, voice slightly muffled around the cake and she gave him a look, one that he scowled at, swallowing and brushing crumbs off his shirt. "Not for that, you know we don't have anything going on," he snapped, but she just smirked, tossing brown hair across one shoulder. "Then why are you here?" she asked, and he smirked right back.

And, damn, he smirked so much better than she could ever hope to.

"I need myself a tracker, blue-bird."


	3. Chapter 3

_Two_

-

_Energy is energy, beneath it all._

_Some forms of energy, people have found, are like a sponge—whatever touches it, whatever passes through it, whatever it's used to clean will leave some sign of itself on the energy in question. Like a fingerprint, in some cases, and sometimes like a scar, healing neatly but leaving a mark of the damage._

_Manipulating this energy, these same people have found, is easier done than said._

_Also, much more easily done than explained, to their great irritation._

_Sometimes, it's accidental— the sudden death that leaves somebody digging in their heels and staying, refusing to move into the light of whatever afterlife they happen to believe in. Sometimes, it's natural— the way the world falls into a deep sleep, the earth turning white and chilled and waking up so bright and brilliant, it's nearly blinding._

_And sometimes, very rarely, it's on purpose._

_In worlds without magic, we call it science._

_In worlds without science, we call it magic._

_In worlds that happen to have slightly skewed forms of both… well, there, we have trouble._

_In those worlds, these nameless people have found, there is a very thin line between belief and existence._

-

"We should ask for directions."

"I don't need any stinking directions."

Maggie sighed, rolling her eyes up to the sky in a show of childish annoyance as Frankie tromped along the forest path, looking worse for the wear than Maggie. In the days since leaving their aunt's castle, they had not been handling it all that well—sore feet, sweaty skin, dirty dresses, despite the cool breezes that continued to come up as Dad kept trying to help however he could.

It was by accident that she caught the dark shadow far above.

Or, more precisely, three shadows.

"Frankie!"

"It's just a hawk!" Frankie hissed, but Maggie shook her head, dragging them quickly off the path and forcing them both down to hunker beneath the husk of a rotten log as the shadows got larger, growing as they got closer. She pulled them down even more as leaves far above began to shake, shifting and moving as the shapes sank down to the forest floor. "You stink," Frankie muttered, and Maggie clamed a hand hurriedly across her sister's mouth.

She could only see the ground from the angle, and regretted not trying a different hiding place, but she saw, with a startled blink, two feet step into her vision, encased in black buckle shoes, silver clasps catching the dim sunlight neatly. And then the bottom of a skirt or dress followed by the bristles of a broom before stillness came again, broken only the tapping of the toe of one black shoes.

Two more pairs of black shoes, both heeled, and two more black skirts or dresses appeared seconds later.

Silence, stillness, only the tapping of that bodiless foot breaking the perfection.

"If this is a wild goose chase, you two, it's not funny—"

"It's not! We left them on this path—"

Greenlee never got to finish.

Shoving Maggie away, Frankie shot out from underneath the log, shoving past Kendall and another woman—the woman who had spoken first, if Maggie would guess—and slamming into Leo's petite wife with all the force of a minotaur in mating season, crashing both tiny women back into a heavy blanket of brown leaves. "You psychotic little psycho!" Frankie shrieked, hands fastened tightly around her cousin-by-marriage's neck, shaking her like a rag doll. "You left us here!"

"Frankie!" Staggering to her own feet, Maggie nearly fell flat on her face, shaking her head furiously, picking up on the movement some feet away—

Everything happened at once, it seemed.

Kendall, trying to yank the enraged twin off Greenlee, suddenly let out a squawk as she got knocked back, slamming onto her rear end so hard she nearly blacked out… Greenlee, already seeing stars, saw something most people wouldn't have, the warning static of power about to ignite… Maggie saw the entire forest suddenly seem to both tighten, as if someone was stretching and pulling it at the same time, only to then snap like a rubber band… and Frankie, as she was lifted up and then back down to land with unnecessary force in a nest of pine cones, saw nothing but a blur.

A minute later, Frankie gave a tiny groan, the kind of groan made by one who wasn't unconscious but desperately wanted to be.

"Do I look like I'm laughing?"

Maggie didn't think the woman sounded like she was laughing, but then, she couldn't quite see at the moment. Hanging onto the forest floor for dear life, Maggie blinked, slowly at first and then more quickly, the blinding white slowly shifting in hazy outlines and shadowy shapes. By the time she managed to tilt her head back to stare at the woman, taking her in cautiously, she had her vision back.

Tall and naturally elegant, medium-length dark hair, large dark eyes, pale in a pretty way. The nameless woman was dressed all in black from pointed, wide-brimmed hat to frothy-looking black dress to silver-buckled black shining shoes. It was the black that took Maggie by surprise—Greenlee and Kendall both wore black for business, but this woman, she saw immediately, wore it because she liked it.

"What is it with witches and black?"

"It's slimming," the woman looming above her drawled, fingertips drumming neatly along the handle of her broom as she shrugged her shoulders lightly. She threw a glance over one shoulder, taking in Greenlee and Kendall whispering, pausing long enough to shoot frightened glances at the younger witch before going back to their whispering, rubbing their neck and rear respectively.

"So," the woman smirked, crouching to cock one eyebrow at Maggie, "are you going to go get your strangle-happy sister so when we can leave or am I going to leave you to be tracked down by Vanessa's little minion of a tracker?"

-

"I can only do so much, Lady Vanessa."

Lady Vanessa didn't look impressed but then, the tracker didn't expect her to. There were no lies between them, not after what the Lady in question had done to employ the chilly-eyed tracker before her, chewing slowly at the slices she took from her apple. She'd offered Vanessa a slice with a smirk only to get a sneer in response, chuckling to herself as she enjoyed the fruit.

Apples didn't frighten Hunter too much, never had.

"They're nitwits; they shouldn't be able to just vanish."

"You're the ones who let the witches escape, not me," the tracker snapped coolly, only to get another glare, harder than before, the elderly woman clutching the book to her chest with a quiet look of white-lipped fury. "Besides, I told you not to let that son of yours get away, but you didn't listen—"

"I didn't think Lavery would save him!" Vanessa hissed, voice almost inaudible with rage, trembling the faintest bit as she remembered the escape means of the monkey formally known as Ryan Lavery. She'd washed for hours, scrubbed at her skin, but still, she could feel the stink of his chosen means of defense.

Who would have though he would— with— and where had he gotten such good aim, anyway?

"Disgusting," she murmured in revulsion, wrinkling her nose in dislike, throwing another more vicious glare at Hunter when the tracker burst out in smothered laughter, nodding in agreement. "Every single one of the damn idiots escaped and where were you, anyway, while the monkey was making his escape with my son?" she hissed, only to get an equally frozen look in response. "Oh, yes, of course, visiting the dungeons."

"That's your fault, not mine, Lady Vanessa."

"Oh, shut up, and go track them down, dammit!"

-

Somewhere within a forest, the monkey walked, slowly but surely, stopping every few moments to look up, hoping against hope to spot a shadow in the sky, any sign of his wife or even Greenlee. He could even put up with Greenlee's annoying yapping right now, he had decided darkly, just as long as Greenlee would be able to get him back to Kendall.

The frog sitting carefully on his head shifted, reminding the monkey to keep moving, and he nodded, setting off again.

Kendall would save them, as long as she and Greenlee didn't have to work together.


End file.
